Archive for the ‘Zaha Hadid’ Category

Located on the north-face hillside in Barvikha where pine and birch trees grow up to 20 metres high, a villa with fluid geometries emerges from the landscape. Its programme is divided into two components: one merging with the hillside, another floating above the ground with dynamic views overlooking the forest.

A new performing arts centre housing five theatres, music hall, concert hall and opera house – conceived as a sculptural form, emerging naturally from the intersection of pedestrian pathways within a new cultural district – a growing organism that spreads through successive branches which form the structure like ‘fruits on the vine’.

Zaha Hadid’s structure radically reinvented the accepted idea of a tent or a marquee. It took the form of a triangulated roof structure spanning an impressive internal space of 600sq metres by using a steel primary structure. A folding form of angular flat planes extending to the ground gave an illusion of solidity while at the same time creating a variety of internal spaces.

This project is a contemporary interpretation of the architecture of the 16th-century courtyard of the State University of Milan,translated and transformed from rigid Cartesian geometries into the linear fluidity of dynamic space. Adapting to the natural contours of the courtyard and the forces that converge towards its center, the project emphasizes the slope of the arches, creating a powerful vortex of spatial distortion that favors dialogue with the surrounding colonnade.

The architectural concept of the London Aquatic Centre is inspired by the fluid geometry of water in motion, creating spaces and a surrounding environment in sympathy with the river landscape of the Olympic Park. An undulating roof sweeps up from the ground as a wave – enclosing the pools of the Centre with its unifying gesture of fluidity, whilst also describing the volume of the swimming and diving pools.

The tower stands at the center of the city’s ambitious regeneration project, Euroméditerranée, located 1km north of the historic center, adjacent to the commercial port.

The site lies 100m back from the sea edge where the elevated motorway viaduct separates as it arrives into the north of the city. At ground level the site is dominated by the sweeping concrete viaducts overhead and the rhythmic colonnades of their supporting columns. It’s dense and noisy but a rich physical context. At high level, the context is the spectacular views over the bay of Marseille, the city and the docks.

The historical development of the Clyde and the city is a unique legacy; with the site situated where the Kelvin flows into the Clyde the building can flow from the city to the river. In doing so it can symbolise a dynamic relationship where the museum is the voice of both, linking the two sides and allowing the museum to be the transition from one to the other. By doing so the museum places itself in the very context of its origin and encourages connectivity between its exhibits and their wider context.

A private island in the Turks and Caicos is being transformed into a laboratory of contemporary architecture by visionaries Zaha Hadid, Shigeru Ban, David Chipperfield, Carl Ettensperger, Kengo Kuma, Chad Oppenheim and Piero Lissoni. Oppenheim was selected as one of 7 architects to create a series of villas for the Mandarin Oriental Group.

The 85,000 square metre Dongdaemun Design Plaza establishes a learning resource for designers and members of the public with a design museum, library and educational facilities, whilst the 30,000 square metre Park creates a green oasis within the dense urban surroundings of Dongdaemun, Seoul. The form of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park revolves around the ancient city wall, which forms the central element of the composition, creating a continuous landscape that physically links the park and plaza together. The fl uid language of the design, by inference and analogy, acts as a catalyst by promoting fl uid thinking and interaction across all the design disciplines, whilst also encouraging the greatest degree of interaction between the activities of the Plaza and the public.

We initiated our design with a study of the overall factory site. Our intention was to place the elements of our commission in such a way that they would not be lost between the enormous factory sheds. We also used these elements to structure the whole site, giving identity and rhythm to the main street running through the complex. This street – which stretches from the chair museum to the other end of the factory site, where the fire station is now located, was envisaged as a linear landscaped zone, almost as if it were the artificial extension of the linear patterns of the adjacent agricultural fields and vineyards. Thus, rather than designing the building as an isolated object, it was developed as the outer edge of the landscaped zone: defining space rather than occupying space. This was achieved by stretching the programme into a long, narrow building alongside the street which marks the edge of the factory site, and which also functions as a screening device against the bordering buildings.